“We wanted everybody to stay,”
Behren recalls, realizing that, even
though the company couldn’t give
workers back their commuting
time, it could eliminate the financial
considerations.

Heidi Skatrud,;senior vice president
of operations and management for
Waterford, Wis.-based Runzheimer,
a leading corporate mobility and
relocation firm, says her company has
seen a big swing in recent years away
from moves driven by lowering costs
and more toward the need to attract
top talent in a competitive market.

Skatrud, like other relocation
experts, suggests that HR executives
do extensive research at the start of
the moving process into the monetary
issues, including possibly higher
urban cost of living and home prices
near the new headquarters, as well
as changes in commuting patterns.

That, she noted, might determine
whether changes are needed in pay
scales, could prompt the company
to weigh how tax policies can differ
in municipalities and could result in
housing allowances for employees who
need to move closer to the new office.

“Some of that,” she notes, “is outside
of normal relocation policies” from the
era when moves were cost-driven.

Easing the Transition

One company that felt a need to
move—and experienced many of
the ups and downs of relocating—is
Farmer Brothers Co., a leading
coffee marketer that processes and
sells roughly 90-million pounds of
java a year. After a financially rocky
period a few years back, the company
looked into moving from its Southern
California suburban headquarters
in Torrance, with executives citing
a desire to leave aging facilities on
the West Coast and set up shop near
the center of the country. The lure
of recruiting a younger workforce
that understood the millennial coffee
culture, however, also loomed large in
the decision-making process.

Farmer Brothers CEO Mike Keown
says that company executives had been
“thinking through, how do we embrace
millennials or a younger workforce?

How do we bring innovation more intothe culture, and how do we build morediversity and inclusion and build moreof a culture of accountability?”Farmer Brothers’ move to outsideof Dallas ultimately required layingoff roughly 300 workers in California,which rankled some of the company’slongtime trustees. Keown and SuzanneGargis, vice president for humanresources at Farmer Brothers, insistthat the firm worked extra hard tosoften the blow for its workforce atTorrance.

“Once the decision was made, we
brought the employees in, and we
were open and candid,” Gargis says.

“We shared as much information
as we could. It was hard news for
them to take, but when you treat
them with respect and care, and
trust them to do the right thing,
they actually over-achieved what we
expected them to do.” Despite the
announcement of the move, Gargis
notes, the bulk of workers stayed on
for the next year until the relocation
took place, while HR staffers offered
resume-writing clinics and worked to
sweeten relocation packages for those
employees whom Farmer Brothers
hoped to bring to Texas.

The Farmer Brothers move differed
from other recent relocations when the
firm—after a year in an interim site—
picked a permanent headquarters not
in a trendy downtown but rather in
suburban Northlake, Texas, across
from the Texas Motor Speedway.

Company leaders said the ultra-modern
design of the headquarters mattered
more than the fact that it was not in
a walkable downtown location near
restaurants and art installations.

The company kept that in mind as
it determined the construction and
layout of the building, the materials
that were used, lighting and furniture,
explains Gargis.

Relocation experts and HR
leaders point out that office design,
and whether it fosters an open and
collaborative work environment, is
critically important when it comes
to recruiting a millennial workforce.

In the case of YA’s migration into
Minneapolis, officials say what made
the move successful was not just going
downtown but also to the specific
venue they secured.

The company hired a space plannerand an artist and did an employeesurvey about the location, saysBehrens. The winning approach wasclear: Workers wanted a clean, openlook, with floor-to-ceiling windows andvery few enclosed offices. Companyexecutives were thrilled when theylearned that an investment firm wasleaving Minneapolis’ iconic LumberExchange Building, a city landmarksince 1885 and America’s oldestskyscraper outside of New York City.

Workers gutted an entire floor to get
the desired look.

Behrens says the ultra-modern
design was essential for YA to become
an attractive rival to other Fortune 500
firms in the neighborhood that were
competing for top software engineers,
such as Target, Best Buy and 3M.

Korn Ferry’s Cook says companies
need to be mindful that older, legacy
businesses need to do more than
just plant the flag in a new downtown
location to compete for the top
millennial talent, but should consider
a broader re-branding to become
known as a cutting-edge place to work.

Her consultancy recently worked
closely with a banking company that
was creating an airy, ultra-modern
headquarters that looked more fitting
for Google or Facebook than a financial
institution. “It’s really important,”
Cook says, “to communicate your
brand in a way that’s aligned with a
different, relevant target demographic.

It’s not just changing your external
messaging.”

Cultural Alignment

A company’s culture often factors
into how it treats current employees,
and how it recruits potential talent—
and relocation serves as a way for
employers to fully integrate culture
into its operations.

Beam Suntory, renowned for its topwhiskey brands such as Maker’s Markand Jim Beam, announced in 2016that it would move its entire staff fromsuburban Deerfield, Ill., into Chicago’sdowntown Loop and the historicMerchandise Mart by the banks ofthe Chicago River. By the time therelocation was finished, only two ofthe roughly 550 employees—bothadministrative assistants—quit thecompany because of the move. PaulaErickson, senior vice president andglobal chief human resources officer,says the reason could be summed up inone word: transparency.

“We did not hold anything back,”says Erickson, noting company leadersannounced the move as soon as it wasdecided “because we didn’t want thereto be any rumors.”The 18-month relocation, whichoccurred in two phases, gaveemployees plenty of time to adjust.

There was a series of companywide
“town-hall meetings,” at which
executives tried to answer every
question and were honest when they
didn’t know the answer yet. Erickson
says she and her top lieutenants
regularly held open office hours for
workers as well.

Many of the workers were inspired
by the move’s driving notion of
what Beam Suntory calls gemba, the
Japanese word that Erickson defines
as “being where the action is.” For a
distilled-spirits firm, leaders wanted
to re-energize the workforce by
moving it to a neighborhood of trendy
bars where people were more likely
to consume their products—thus
inspiring staff to come up with ideas
for new offerings and new ways of
marketing. “We can be in the heart
of where the trends are happening
and talk to the bartenders and talk to
the customers” about what’s new in
mixology, Erickson says.

The hip factor was aided by the
opportunity to move to a floor inside
the massive and centrally located
Merchandise Mart that was being
vacated by Motorola, which had
already remodeled it with state-of-the-art work stations and treadmills, while
rewiring it for the latest technology.

The roughly 30-mile move inspired
Erickson and her HR team to rethink other important aspects of the
workplace culture and environment.

Workers making the move were
offered more flexibility to work
from home or a remote location
such as a Starbucks one day a week.

Family-leave time was expanded for
parents of newborns, and job-sharing
opportunities were also increased. An
allowance that encouraged employees
to go out and purchase Beam Suntory
brands was raised from $500 to $750.

For the first year, employees also
received a commuting allowance
to adjust to the new location. And
workshops were offered to encourage
employees to volunteer in their new
hometown of Chicago.

The last batch of Beam Suntory
employees moved to the Merchandise
Mart last June. Erickson says the
company is already far along toward
the ambitious goal that has motivated
so many recent corporate moves—to
gain not just a new zip code but a
brand-new culture. “It almost feels like
a new company,” she says.

Send questions or comments about
this story to hreletters@lrp.com.

A company’s culture often factorsinto how it treats current employees,and how it recruits potential talent—and relocation serves as a way foremployers to fully integrate cultureinto its operations.